I was up at 8 to put on as many layers as I could find, eat a hearty breakfast and walk the 5 minutes to the glacier hiking centre to meet my guide. I met my companions for the day, Hans and Mel, a German couple who had endured the frozen night in their camper van, something Hans was quick to complain about! We were issued with all the requisite safety gear and given a quick briefing by our guide for the day, Jeremy. It is a depressing point I’ve been noticing ...

I was up at 8 to put on as many layers as I could find, eat a hearty breakfast and walk the 5 minutes to the glacier hiking centre to meet my guide. I met my companions for the day, Hans and Mel, a German couple who had endured the frozen night in their camper van, something Hans was quick to complain about! We were issued with all the requisite safety gear and given a quick briefing by our guide for the day, Jeremy. It is a depressing point I’ve been noticing ...

I have to admit I was feeling a little peaky as I rose and got ready for the bus. The three hours sleep had done little to help and I decided to sit at the front of the bus to try to hold things together. The first hour of the journey was a study in watching the horizon and distracting my mind but I managed to overcome the winding roads without incident. As we headed up over the Haast pass in a snowstorm, however, the bus started to struggle even more than I, and...

I got up at about 10 and headed straight into town. I organised my transport and hostel for the next day using free internet I’d got for booking my activities in Queenstown then headed back to the hostel for lunch. After lunch I bided my time watching a bit of TV before heading down to the meeting point for my bungee jump. I was nervous, but as a veteran of 5 previous jumps the others waiting saw me as a guru so the time went quickly as I answered their questio...

I got up briefly at 7.30 to say goodbye to the Strays heading off to Christchurch. After hugs and waving I decided the sensible course of action was to head back to bed for a few hours. At the eminently more civilised hour of half 10 I got up, had a shower and packed a day pack. After refuelling at the bakery with yet another pie I headed to the information centre, picked up a map and headed off to climb Queenstown’s other hill, opposite the gondola. I set a br...